Everyone's favorite internet troll pretending to be a charity organization is at it again, and Woodstock, Illinois is directly in their cross hairs.

I personally love PETA. I don't support most, if any of their actions, but I love their ability to annoy people. Outside of ruining some fur coats, I don't think they've done anything permanently wrong, they're just really good at getting under other people's skin. As an older brother, real recognizes real.

NOTE: It's Friday, so I don't want to do a ton of research on this post. There is something in the back of my head that says there is some sort of conspiracy theories out there that shows them being behind some pretty bad stuff. I know want to google that kind of stuff right now. So, I'd like to have it for the record that if PETA is in fact behind any heinous crimes, I do NOT support them in any way.

Anyway. PETA "loves" animals. If you then don't love PETA, by the associative property, you also don't "love" animals. And who doesn't love animals. It's a strategy PETA perfected through the years and was eventually adopted by both political parties.

PETA's latest target is the vile tradition of yanking a rodent out of its artificial habitat and thrust it in front of a throng of people while subjecting it to a throng of people and seizure-inducing strobe lights for a few minutes before stuffing it back into it's artificial box to do it all over again a year later.

Otherwise known as Groundhog Day.

An actual quote from PETA:

WBZNews - As you know, Phil is certainly not a real meteorologist and didn’t volunteer for this job. For far too long, he’s been dragged out of a fake tree stump and subjected to noise, flashing lights, and crowds, against all of his natural instincts. For the rest of the year, he’s forced to live in a library “habitat” that doesn’t allow him to do anything that’s natural and important to him, such as hibernating, digging, burrowing, foraging, smelling fresh air, and simply living like a sentient being, not an exhibit.

PETA would instead like to donate "consent" trees that could be planted. PETA suggests that plants are just as good as a groundhog at predicting the weather and wouldn't suffer from the attention that the live rodent receives.

No Groundhog Day would absolutely crush the annual spectacle in Woodstock, Illinois that is Ground Hog Day. A significant portion of the 1990s Bill Murray film was shot in Woodstock and the town celebrates every year.

I personally lived in Woodstock for a year in the early 2000's and can definitely attest to the fact that they love the movie out there and, at least 20 years ago, had a great turn out for the festival.

Who knows, maybe this just gins up more attention for the festival and they have one of their best festivals yet this year. That's the PETA blessing and curse, they're super annoying but in cases like this, any attention, is good attention.

The official website for this year's Ground Hog Day celebration in Woodstock can be found here. 

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